More than 100 people were arrested and more than $100,000 in drugs and cash seized as part of a six-month investigation dubbed “Operation Room Service,” Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said Thursday.
The investigation focused on drug and gun trafficking at motels and hotels along Mannheim Road just south of O’Hare, Dart said at a news conference.
The investigation, which involved officers with the Cook County Sheriff’s Department and Stone Park, Franklin Park and Melrose Park police departments, began in April when sheriff’s gang officers received a tip about illegal guns being sold from the Lido Motel in Franklin Park.
Undercover officers learned drug dealers had start moving into the neighborhood because of steady traffic provided by “drug-addicted prostitutes” and suburban teenagers “with easy access to cash,” Dart said.
Through the investigation, drug dealers told undercover police officers they shifted their operations to suburban motels instead of city street corners because they make more money and have less police pressure, Dart said. Some motel employees were complicit, often instructing visitors on which rooms were selling which drug, Dart said.
Meanwhile, a simultaneous undercover prostitution sting in some of the same hotels netted 58 of the arrests, Dart said. Prostitutes were arrested on street corners and off Craigslist, while johns were arrested by undercover female police officers working in the same area, he said.
Those arrested in the prostitution sting included “a wealthy businessman on his way to conduct a seminar” and a septic tank cleaning man who had been working at O’Hare, Dart said.
The 118 arrests were made over the past few months, but some of the key figures in the drug trafficking operation were arrested during the past week, Dart said. He identified them as Juan Charo, 53, of Stone Park; Jose Valles-Sanchez, 32, of Stone Park; Carnell Johnson, 37, of Bellwood; and Alexis Cruz, 29, of Northlake.
Dart said three targets of the investigation remain at large: Tuwayne Bell, 38, of Stone Park; Frank Mandanici, 56, of Lombard; and Roger Murray, 54, of North Riverside.
Franklin Park Village President Barrett Pedersen, who also was at the news conference, said drug dealing and prostitution in the area could be avoided if the county did “meaningful code enforcement” on motels and hotels lying in an unincorporated area.
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The tally
Police seized 18 guns, 2,000 rounds of ammunition, $35,000 in cash and cocaine and marijuana with a total street value of about $55,000, Dart said.
